RAGE AT DAWN
DIRECTED BY TIM WHELAN
NAT HOLT PRODUCTIONS
RKO RADIO PICTURES
INFORMATION FROM IMDb
Plot Summary
Terrorizing 1866 Indiana, the Reno brothers gang uses the town of Seymour as a safe haven,
paying off three crooked town officials.
Sent in to clean up the gang is Peterson Detective Agency operative James Barlow,
who poses as an outlaw to gain the confidence of the officials and the thick-headed brothers.
Complicating matters are Barlow's feelings for the Reno sister,
Laura, who reluctantly keeps house for the boys out of family loyalty.
Events heat up and rage surfaces as Barlow sets up the gang in a dawn train robbery.
Written by Doug Sederberg
Cast
Randolph Scott ... James Barlow
Forrest Tucker ... Frank Reno
Mala Powers ... Laura Reno
J. Carrol Naish ... Simeon 'Sim' Reno
Edgar Buchanan ... Judge
Myron Healey ... John Reno
Howard Petrie ... Lattimore - Prosecuting Attorney
Ray Teal ... Sheriff of Seymour
William Forrest ... William Peterson
Denver Pyle ... Clint Reno
revor Bardette ... Fisher
Kenneth Tobey ... Monk Claxton
and many more...
Directed
Tim Whelan
Writing Credits
Horace McCoy ... (screenplay)
Frank Gruber ... (story)
Produced
Nat Holt ... producer
Music
Paul Sawtell
Cinematography
Ray Rennahan ... director of photography
Trivia
Ten members of the Reno gang were lynched in three separate incidents in 1868.
The first three were taken by vigilantes from a train.
Three others were lynched at a later time.
The last lynching, which included three Reno brothers, Frank, Sim, and Bill,
actually claimed a fourth victim, gang member Charlie Anderson.
Anderson and Frank Reno were technically in federal custody when they were lynched.
This is believed to be the only time in U.S. history that a federal prisoner
had ever been lynched by a mob before a trial.
The part of the honest Reno brother Clint was played by Denver Pyle
One year later Elvis Presley made his film debut playing
the same character in Love Me Tender (1956).
A vintage photograph shows John Reno wearing a porkpie hat.
However, Myron Healey's John wears a standard cowboy hat,
and it is brother Clint who's costumed in a porkpie.
Train being robbed both times is Sierra Railway #3 out of Jamestown, CA.
Goofs
Factual errors
In the film brothers Frank, Sim, and John are lynched.
In reality John was not hanged by the vigilantes but had been imprisoned and lived until 1895.
Bill was the third brother hanged although in the film he is killed
in a bungled bank robbery early in the film.
Although the film shows two of the identified vigilantes were imprisoned for the crime,
in reality not one of the 65 man lynch mob was ever identified or punished.
The film takes place in 1866.
When Randolph Scott is in the dry goods store the man asks
if he is an artist like Rembrandt or Van Gogh.
The problem is, Van Gogh was only thirteen years old
at the time and not a famous artist.
Revealing mistakes
Set in Indiana in 1866, the opening sequences reveal telephone poles
and telephone lines in the background.
Also, the U.S. and California State flag are shown on a flagpole in the background.
(The film was shot in California)
Although the film is set in the Midwestern state of Indiana,
the opening sequence shows a desert landscape and the kind
of towering buttes found in the Southwest--e.g.,
Utah and Arizona--and not on the flat prairies of Indiana.
Filming Locations
Honey Run Covered Bridge, Chico, California, USA (Opening & closing Credits})
Arizona, USA
Sierra Railroad, Jamestown, California, USA (Robbery)
Murphys Hotel, 457 Main Street, Murphys, California, USA (Lynch Mob scene)
Columbia State Historic Park - 22708 Broadway, Columbia, California, USA
Sonora, California, USA
Ratto Ranch ,Sonora California, USA (Farmhouse)
Watch the Movie
[extendedmedia]